Uniting People Beyond Religion: The 8th Annual MSA Iftar

On Friday, March 21, the Frick Center was packed with people ready to either open their fast or simply be with their friends to celebrate as the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and Spiritual Life Council (SLC) hosted their eighth Annual Community Iftar to share Ramadan with anyone available to join.

Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims and helps them reconnect spiritually. It consists of fasting each day from dawn to sunset for 29-30 days. This year, it fell in the month of March. MSA held this Iftar to share this month with the rest of the campus community.

The start of the program was bustling from 6 p.m. on the dot. People came in all their cultural clothing and enjoyed the social time. Around 6:30 p.m., the vice presidents of MSA gave a short speech thanking everyone for coming. They gave a small summary of what Ramadan and fasting mean for Muslims and how the program would proceed.

After this, MSA member Hamdan Khan gave a recitation of a few verses of the Holy Qur’an. Then, the night kicked off once again. It started with the call to prayer, and everyone fasting ate a date to open their fasts.

Then, the Muslim students and community members said the night prayer, also known as Maghrib. After this, everyone settled down and ate dinner while chatting away.

The highlight of the night, however, began around 8 p.m., with guest speaker Ustadha Tahera Ahmad. She presented an incredibly powerful speech to unite and inspire everyone in the audience. Of course, she started with introductions and explaining, in more detail, what Ramadan is.

Ahmad recited verses from Surah Al-Baqarah that explained why Muslims fast and how it is mandated. Around the middle of her speech, she transitioned into a personal story that quite possibly rocked most people to their core.

Ahmad, who has worked across the world, shared her story of a boy in Afghanistan. She came to the boy’s school to speak about religion and why they should believe in God. What she received, however, was something most people living in the United States would find shocking.

The boy told her that she had no right to speak to them about God because, as an American, she never went through the horrors they went through. Ahmad’s most powerful line was when the boy said, “God is dead here.”

Of course, at the MSA Iftar this seemed odd to mention at first; however, as the story unfolded, it was clear to see how this was to unite us.

Later in the story, Ahmad mentioned going to a friend’s house. This friend had adopted children from across the world and they were all talking over dinner. Ahmad recognized one of the children, but of course, it had to be a coincidence. Right?

She asked the mom about him later. Miraculously, the boy she recognized was from Afghanistan. He hadn’t spoken to her all the way until he gave her coat back before she left. He told her, “God is here.”

This narrative was incredible to hear and made the audience’s hearts swell. Ahmad explained that the love from that family transformed the boy. She explained that we, living here in a privileged community, should find ways to help others as well.

She reconnected this to our community. All of the people sitting there listening, some were Muslims; some weren’t. Some were international students; some were from just twenty minutes away. Some were professors, and some were family members. It wasn’t the community members’ ethnicities or religions that really mattered, it was that they were all humans.

Humans who could connect to suffering, heartache, and loss. Humans who knew how horrible those emotions felt, and that they could choose to help others work through them, or not. We can connect to suffering, heartache, and loss. We know how horrible these emotions are, and we can choose to help others get through it, or not.

Overall, the eighth Annual Community Iftar was a success, from the delicious food to the socializing to the impactful speech at the end. The MSA and the SLC truly outdid themselves. For any who were unable to attend, don’t worry! The Iftar will happen again next year, so keep an eye out!